India, other emerging economies showing positive signs: OECD

Emerging economies like India, Brazil, Russia and China showed positive signals in February compared to March, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) composite leading indicators.

"The assessment for Brazil, India, Russia and, in particular China, shows stronger positive signals compared to last month's (January) assessment," OECD said while releasing the index.

The Paris-based think tank said its leading indicator of economic activity in India rose to 98.6% in February from 98.4% in January. This was the fourth straight monthly increase.

The OECD's leading indicators are designed to provide early signals of turning points between the expansion and slowdown of economic activity, and are based on a wide variety of data series that have a history of signalling changes.

The government is expecting the economic growth rate to accelerate to 7.6% during the current financial year, as compared to 6.9% a year ago.

As regards the rich nations, the indicators for Japan and the United States continue to show strong signs of regained momentum in economic activity.

The indicators for the Euro area as such point to a potential turning point but with diverging assessments for the four major European economies.

While Italy and France point to continued sluggish economic activity, Germany and the United Kingdom are showing signs of positive change, OECD said.